Surprise! Blacks seem to have voted at a higher rate than whites in last month’s election!

Despite concerted voter-suppression efforts by Republicans aimed at blacks and certain other elements of the Democratic coalition (see HERE), there’s good evidence that it was white folks rather than African-Americans who failed to vote last month in numbers proportional to their share of the eligible electorate.

Blacks voted at a higher rate this year than other minority groups and for the first time in history may also have voted at a higher rate than whites, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of census data, election day exit poll data and vote totals from selected cities and counties.

Unlike other minority groups whose increasing electoral muscle has been driven mainly by population growth, blacks’ rising share of the vote in the past four presidential elections has been the result of rising turnout rates.

These participation milestones are notable not just in light of the long history of black disenfranchisement, but also in light of recently-enacted state voter identification laws that some critics contended would suppress turnout disproportionately among blacks and other minority groups.

In fact, according to census data and the election day exit polls, blacks made up 12 percent of the eligible electorate1 this year but accounted for an estimated 13 percent of all votes cast—a repeat of the 2008 presidential election, when blacks “over-performed” at the polls by the same ratio. In all previous presidential elections for which there are reliable data, blacks had accounted for a smaller share of votes than eligible voters.

The candidacy in 2008 and 2012 of Barack Obama, the nation’s first black president, is no doubt one of the main reasons for these new patterns. But there are other explanations as well, including the increased racial and ethnic diversity of the electorate, and a declining turnout rate among whites.

In 2012, more Hispanics and Asian-Americans voted than ever before, but the turnout rates among these groups (votes cast as a share of eligible voters), while rising, continues to lag that of the general public by a substantial margin. Their growing electoral muscle is mainly due to their rapid population growth.

As for whites, not only has their share of the eligible electorate been falling for decades, but their turnout rate appears to have declined in 2012 for the second presidential election in row.

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He thinks his racist Republican heroes haven’t tried to suppress the black vote. He must also believe the baseless Republican rhetoric that voter fraud is a big problem requiring drastic measures to curb it.

The truth is irrelevant to the far Right wing and Tea Party faithful. Their delusion, paranoia and ignorance is so ingrained just the light from the truth would take 50 million light years to reach them. They feast on a steady diet of Rush Limbaugh, Hannity, Savage and Fox News which tells them daily Obama is a Communist, was born in Kenya, is a Muslim, wants to take away Christmas, their guns and enslave them all to the government.

They believe this gabage as if there was a shread of truth to it and even when presented with evidence of the real truth they stubbornly cling to the same old insanity and hate the messengers of the truth for trying to upset their misguided view of the world. The only good part to this insanity is they are becoming less and less of a force as years pass. Fewer angry, bitter, old white men. America is becoming less white, less Christian, and less intolerant.

One religion was founded by a con artist pretty much during my grandparents lifetime.

One religion was founded by a “prophet” who married 6 year-olds and had sex with them when they were 9. They wear a turban because Muhammad did, so I would say if they want to look like a pedophile then that is their choice.

I guess a con artist is better than a pedophile, but the religion is wayyyyy more insane.